JEDDAH, 6 March 2008 — NCB Capital (NCBC) is the underwriter and floating manager for United Cooperative Assurance Company’s (UCA) initial public offering (IPO). This follows an agreement signed between the two entities here yesterday. UCA is one of the several insurance companies recently licensed in the Kingdom.
The subscription period commences on March 8 and will remain open till March 15. The total capital of the company is SR200 million. UCA is offering 40 percent of its shares to the public a total of eight million shares at SR10 per share.
UCA Chairman Hassan Mahassni expressed his gratitude and appreciation to NCBC as well as the receiving banks for assisting in the process. He thanked the Capital Market Authority (CMA) and spoke about the growth of the insurance sector in the Kingdom. He said that the Saudi insurance market had not yet tapped into its full potential, which is approximately SR30 billion, but should reach SR15 billion in the next three years. Mahassni added that the average insurance expenditure per person could reach SR700 by 2012.
Hicham Hatoum, vice president of Equity Capital Markets at NCB Capital thanked UCA and the shareholders for their trust and confidence in choosing NCBC as their underwriter and flotation manager. “NCB Capital will put in utmost efforts to see that this IPO succeeds,” he said.
UCA is one of the most recent insurance companies to mandate BMG Financial Advisors. Its CEO Basil Al-Ghalayini said that BMG’s expertise continued to grow in the insurance industry as a result of these mandates, giving BMG one of the most extensive track records in the Saudi insurance market. BMG leverages this experience to provide unique analysis in its research reports for insurance and other sector.